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Bush Gulf Visit; Two Men in Custody for Alabama Church Fires

Aired March 08, 2006 - 11:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Looking at live pictures, this is New Orleans. President Bush is there for a sixth visit since Katrina today. We do expect him to step up to the microphone and make comments. Well, there looks like there's movement. Looks like -- yes, looks like the president is making his way to the podium. The president and Mrs. Bush are in town. They're doing New Orleans. They're also going to other parts of the Gulf Coast, a tenth visit to the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina hit. They're at the site there of one of the levees that's being rebuilt. Some criticism of the levees, that perhaps not being built with materials that will withstand a Katrina-type storm.
Let's listen in to the president.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to thank you all for coming.

I want to thank Colonel Sitlef (ph) for the tour that he just gave the governor and the mayor and myself, along with Laura and part of our party.

I want to thank Colonel Waggoner (ph) for the aerial tour. We just flew over affected parts of the Orleans Parish and Jefferson Parish and St. Bernard Parish -- and getting a view of the progress that is being made.

I particularly want to thank my friend Don Powell for his hard work in coordinating federal efforts with the governor and the mayor.

Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin have been by my side when I've come down here -- and I really appreciate them being a part of the recovery efforts.

And I want to thank Walter Isaacson and David Voelker -- they're members of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. They were on Air Force One today to make sure I fully understand the strategies that the local folks are putting in place to help the good people of this part of the world recover from the devastating storm.

You know, we just came from a neighborhood where people are in the process of cleaning up debris. We went there because the mayor and the governor thought it was important for me to see firsthand the devastation of the storm and certain neighborhoods -- and the progress that's being made for cleaning up the debris.

There's still a lot of work to be done -- no question about it. And obviously, as a plan gets laid out and as the housing plan I'm fixing to discuss comes to fruition, people will feel more comfortable in granting the local authorities the right to remove debris from their homes to be cleaned up.

But I want to share a story about a fellow, Romalis Harris (ph), I met. He was there as part of the construction crew.

I asked him, I said, "Where were you during the storm?"

He said he felt like he could ride it out.

He heard the evacuation orders, but thought it would be all right to ride out the storm.

He lived in -- it was on the third floor of an apartment complex. And he described to me and the governor and the mayor what it was like to see the water start to rise up to the second floor of the building.

He and his three children and his wife and another relative were finally rescued by boat.

I said, "What happened to you?"

He said, "Well, I went to Salt Lake City, Utah."

And in other words, his is an example of what happened to the good folks in this part of the world. He watched the rising waters and then he just had to abandon part of the world he loves.

From there, the federal government helped fly him to Chicago, where he had some relatives -- or a relative.

He now has come back to work in the city he loves, New Orleans, with the hopes of rebuilding his life. His wife and children are still in Chicago. They're going to school there.

But as he told us -- he says he looks forward to bringing them home, bringing them back to Louisiana to have his children educated right here.

And I'm convinced he'll succeed. And our job at all levels of government is to provide the confidence and the help necessary so that people like Romalis Harris (ph) come home.

I appreciate the determination by the folks down here to rebuild. I fully understand -- and I hope our country understands -- the pain and agony that the people of New Orleans and Louisiana and the parishes surrounding New Orleans went through.

But I think people would be impressed by the desire for the people in this part of the country to pick up and move on and rebuild.

And that's why I'm so pleased that the governor and the mayor have joined me so we can discuss the importance of implementing a strategy that will help this part of the world rise again.

The first part of the strategy is to make sure these levees are strong. I mean, we fully understand that, if people don't have confidence in the levee system, they're not going to want to come back. People aren't going to want to spend money or invest.

I just got a briefing from the Army Corps of Engineers that said we're on a schedule to repair the damage by the June 1st deadline. They're identifying and correcting design and construction deficiencies so that, as we go into the start of the hurricane season, the levees will be equal or better than what they were before Katrina.

The Corps is identifying areas that weren't damaged but that need additional attention. Over here, you can see one of the walls that are being built. I mean, there's a lot of concrete, a lot of steel being put in the ground to protect the levee system.

By September of next year, additional improvements will be completed, bringing the entire levee system up to the full authorized design height, making it better and stronger than before.

Congress heard our message about improving the levees, but they shortchanged the process by about $1.5 billion.

And so, in order to help fulfill our promise on the levees, Congress needs to restore the $1.5 billion to make this a real commitment, to inspire the good folks down here that they'll have a levee system that will encourage development and reconstruction.

As I mentioned, we went by the Ninth Ward to see the debris removal that was taking place. The vast majority of debris on public property has been removed. About 80 percent of the debris not related to demolition has been cleared. Most of the remaining debris is on private property in yards or inside houses that need to be gutted or demolished.

To get the debris, the residents need to give permission -- in most cases -- to the local authorities.

And so they need to get back to their houses so they can decide what to keep and what to remove.

The problem is, obviously, many homeowners are still displaced -- and that's why we're working at all levels of government to encourage evacuees to inspect their properties and to salvage what they can and to make decisions about the future.

Of course, the decision-making for the individual homeowners is going to be made easier when Congress funds the $4.2 billion that I asked them to fund for the state of Louisiana for housing purposes.

Now, this $4.2 billion is in conjunction with $6.2 billion of CDBG money for housing grants. The $4.2 billion request was done in a coordinated effort with state and local authorities.

The reason I thought this number made sense is because the number fits into a well thought-out plan that has been put together by the local folks. The housing plan has been coordinated by the state authorities with local authorities, as well as with HUD authorities. In other words, we've all been working together to figure out how to come up with a housing plan that will restore the confidence of the people of this important part of our country.

And in order to make sure that housing plan meets its goals, Congress should make sure that the $4.2 billion I requested goes to the state of Louisiana.

I'm also confident that this plan is solid right now, it's well thought-out, and when it's submitted to HUD -- because there's been close coordination -- it should be approved on a timely basis.

So again, I want to thank you all for inviting me to come back.

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Louisiana. Some of you might recall I grew up across the line, over there in Texas, and really enjoyed my stay here when I came.

I was pleased to see that the Mardi Gras parades went well, Mr. Mayor. As the mayor and the governor described to me, it was as much of a homecoming as anything else. A lot of folks came back, came home.

And that's what we want. We want people coming home.

And the federal government will do our part, in conjunction with our state and local partners.

I ask for God's blessings on the people in this part of the world, and thank the hardworking folks here for working around the clock to get this part of the country up and running again.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, Laura's traveling with me. She's got a very important announcement she'd like to make as well.

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you. Thanks a lot.

I want to talk about schools just briefly -- and particularly about school libraries.

In July 2001 I founded a foundation, the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries. The foundation is a private organization that provides grants to school libraries to expand their book collections.

Over the last four years, the foundation has awarded 428 grants totaling more than $2 million in 49 states.

In September of last year, the leadership group -- the Leadership Council of the Laura Bush Foundation -- met for what was going to be our very last meeting. We had raised the money we wanted to raise for the foundation and we were going to disperse our leadership council.

And instead, everyone unanimously wanted to continue to work to raise a specific amount of money for Gulf Coast libraries. We've established a special fund to help the schools in the Gulf Coast region -- the Gulf Coast School Library Recovery Initiative is the name of it.

The initiative will help Gulf Coast schools that were damaged by the hurricanes rebuild their book and material collections.

And the task is very large. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 1,121 public and private schools in the Gulf Coast region were damaged or destroyed.

The basic initial cost of building a book collection for an elementary school library is $50,000 -- and the cost for a secondary school library is at least $100,000.

So the Laura Bush Foundation Web site, which everyone can go to -- laurabushfoundation.org -- has a simple application that schools can use to apply for funds.

Again, the Web site is laurabushfoundation.org.

The foundation already uses a competitive grant process to distribute annual grants -- and we'll use the same process for the Gulf Coast funds.

Some schools should receive awards by late April or early May. Additional grants will be distributed throughout the year as more schools are rebuilt and ready to stock their libraries.

The Laura Bush Foundation will continue to provide its annual grants to schools throughout the United States -- and you can find the details about those grants on the Web site.

But these special grants for the Gulf Coast rebuilding are for schools that were damaged or destroyed by the hurricanes and want to rebuild their library collections.

We all know that schools are at the center of every child's life, and the routine of going to school gives children a sense of comfort that's more important than ever for boys and girls who have endured trauma.

The sooner children are back in their own schools, the happier and healthier they'll be.

So I want to thank everyone who's working hard to help the Gulf Coast recover. I urge all the Gulf Coast schools that are rebuilding to go to the laurabushfoundation.org Web site and apply for a grant for your school library.

Thanks, everybody.

KAGAN: So a lot of dollar numbers mentioned there, as President and Mrs. Bush visit New Orleans today at the site of one of levees that's under reconstruction. President Bush pointed the finger at Congress, saying I've asked for a lot of money, billions of dollars in additional levee funding and housing funding for Louisiana.

He would like to see that money come through from Congress. And then Mrs. Bush announcing her own private foundation, which targets school libraries, setting up a special fund for schools and libraries that have been destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast, as they try to rebuild their school libraries.

We'll be watching that trip. We're also watching for severe weather today in the heartland. More on that after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Let's get back to our top story of the hour, and that's this break in the case with the string of arson church fires in Alabama. Two men in custody expected to make their first appearance in federal court this hour in Birmingham. Also expecting a news conference out of Tuscaloosa, Alabama at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.

Meanwhile, what was the big break in the case? Our David Mattingly on the phone with us now. He's been covering this story since last month -- David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, this big break, it turns out, was a very small detail. It goes back to some tire tracks that were located a the scene of church fires in Bibb County, Alabama, during that first rash of church fires. Investigators from the Bibb County Sheriff's Office were very meticulous in the way they preserved the crime scenes, so they were able to get very good casts of those tire marks in the areas of those churches.

What they were able to do -- and this all came down to some very long hours and very hard-nosed police work -- they were finally able to track down that tire tread. They found that it was a very uncommon type of tire tread. They eventually traced it to a tire dealer in Shelby County, Alabama. And according to what I've been told, that dealer had to order those tires special for a particular customer. And they were able then to go after that customer.

They found that this customer was the driver of the dark SUV they had been looking for. He was a young man. They went to his parents' home. When he came home, they confronted him about this and he immediately cooperated, giving them information on the two other young men who had been arrested in this case. And again, it all goes down to one small detail and a lot of how hours put in by these investigators.

KAGAN: Some good police work. We're learning that the suspect's names are Ben Mosley and Russell Debusk. Those are the two that are already in custody, and that they are also looking for a third person who's identified as Matthew Lee Cloyd. David, we know the first two are students at Birmingham Southern College. MATTINGLY: That's right what I've been told, as well. The third one, we're still looking for more details on him. It's possible he went to a different college there in the Birmingham area. But again, he is being named as the driver of the dark SUV and was involved in at least part of those church fires. They are still looking for him right now.

It is unclear as to why they did not take him into custody right away after talking with him or where he might be. So again, this is one of those loose ends that still has yet to be tied up in this very big break in this case.

KAGAN: Ah, so the one person who's still at large, Matthew Lee Cloyd, they believe he is the owner of the SUV that was used in the string of arson crimes?

MATTINGLY: That, according to the information that I was given by someone in Washington on this who is very close to the case, yes.

KAGAN: And as you were saying, this came down to good old- fashioned hard-nosed police work. Because I know at a certain point they believed that whoever was doing this had a message to send, so they set up this e-mail address and a post office box, hoping that -- kind of like back in the sniper investigation back in D.C. a few years ago -- that this person would want to communicate with authorities.

MATTINGLY: At this point -- we're going back to the idea of motive here -- there was no communication that we know of. And at this point it doesn't look like there was anything beyond an act of vandalism, spontaneity and thrill seeking that might have been involved here. We're hoping to find out a lot more details about why these young men did this with the news conference later this afternoon.

KAGAN: But all along -- and of course, this hasn't been that long because a string of fires taking place just about a month ago. It seemed like they knew they were looking for more than just one person, David.

MATTINGLY: They had to believe, and that the way these were carried out, that one person could not do it as quickly as they were happening. These were sort of like smash and grab type of crimes where they would drive up, kick one of the doors in, go in and set fire to the first flammable material that they could get their hands on, which was usually at the pulpit, some cases it was the pews. Anything they could try to get burning, that's what they did.

So they don't believe that one person was able to carry this out. And all along, they were looking for two white men in a dark SUV. In this case, the vehicle that they were tracing the tire to was a dark SUV.

KAGAN: When we look at the map -- and I know you're -- I don't know if you're near a television, but we're looking at the map. I know you're familiar with how the pattern of fires spreads out. These people covered quite a bit of ground. MATTINGLY: Yes, they did. And that as always been the source of great deal of speculation in this. How much did they know about this area before they went in? Were they just picking churches at random? The fact that this was such a wide area and that some of these churches were so remote suggested very strongly that whoever was behind this was very familiar with the area and had done some prior planning. Again, probably details we're going to learn about when we hear from the ATF agents as they tell us, in their own words, how they were able to crack the case.

KAGAN: We will learn more with that news conference at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. David Mattingly, thank you.

That's going to wrap up the hour. I'm Daryn Kagan. International news is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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